Last week, actor William Fichtner confirmed that he was portraying Shredder, the arch enemy of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, in next summer’s live-action movie. The character actor has enjoyed a long career and has been showcased in many genre roles from the television series Invasion to The Dark Knight to the upcoming Elysium and The Lone Ranger, in which he plays main bad guy Butch Cavendish.

Fichtner explained that his character’s real name is Eric Sachs, which varies from Shredder’s classic real name Oroku Saki, which has been used in the original comics and the subsequent cartoon series and movies.

The switch from Japanese to Caucasian has rankled some fans, as Splinter the rat, who serves as the Turtles’ sensei is also being portrayed by a Caucasian actor, Danny Woodburn.

Fichtner expressed:

There is a whole interesting dynamic that happens in the world of Turtles and all I can really say about it at this point while working on it is that the Turtle film, it’s not like anything that I remember about the Turtles before. I feel like this Michael Bay-produced movie is just gonna really be something else. I’m pretty excited.

Hmmm… are you excited at a brand new take on the Turtles and company? Or would you prefer a more classic approach? Will you be checking this movie out on opening weekend? Comment below!

I just don’t agree with this. I was always a huge fan of the TMNT, and whilst I never paid particularly close attention to the Japanese subtleties of the movies, it is undeniable that they make up the original story of the TMNT.